HURRICANE MARIA MADE LANDFALL IN PUERTO RICO AS A POWERFUL CATEGORY 4 STORM. STRONG WINDS AND RAIN LED TO WIDESPREAD DAMAGES STRIPPING LEAVES FROM VEGETATION AND SNAPPING OR UPROOTING TROPICAL FOREST TREES ACROSS THE ISLAND. UNDERSTANDING THE PATTERNS OF FOREST DAMAGE AND PROCESSES OF FOREST RECOVERY WILL HELP IMPROVE ECOSYSTEM MODELS OF FOREST SUCCESSION AND BIOGEOCHEMICAL CYCLING. AT PRESENT THE MECHANISMS OF TREE MORTALITY AND CHANGES IN FOREST STRUCTURE FROM CANOPY DAMAGE ARE POORLY REPRESENTED IN EARTH SYSTEM MODELS. HERE WE PROPOSE TO COLLECT FIELD DATA ON ESTABLISHED FOREST INVENTORY PLOTS TO TRACK FOREST GROWTH AND DELAYED TREE MORTALITY FOLLOWING HURRICANE MARIA. FIELD MEASUREMENTS WILL CONTRIBUTE TO A LARGER PROJECT RECENTLY SELECTED FOR FUNDING BY THE DEPARTMENT OF ENERGY ( CATASTROPHIC FOREST DISTURBANCE AND REGROWTH IN PUERTO RICO FOLLOWING HURRICANE MARIA: BENCHMARKS FOR EARTH SYSTEM MODELS FROM FOREST INVENTORY AND REMOTE SENSING MEASUREMENTS ). THE OVERALL GOAL OF THE PROJECT IS TO LEVERAGE EXTENSIVE FOREST INVENTORY AND AIRBORNE REMOTE SENSING DATA ACQUIRED BEFORE AND AFTER HURRICANES IRMA AND MARIA IN PUERTO RICO TO QUANTIFY VARIABILITY IN TREE MORTALITY AND CANOPY DAMAGE. WE WILL STUDY CANOPY DAMAGE MORTALITY AND POST-DISTURBANCE FOREST RECOVERY ACROSS LANDSCAPE GRADIENTS IN CLIMATE GEOLOGY TOPOGRAPHY FOREST AGE PAST LAND USE AND SPECIES COMPOSITION. THIS KNOWLEDGE WILL PROVIDE BENCHMARK DATA SETS FOR MODELING CHANGES IN FOREST STRUCTURE COMPOSITION AND BIOGEOCHEMICAL CYCLING FROM FOREST DISTURBANCE IN EARTH SYSTEM MODELS.